Thanksgiving, Giving Thanks And Singing AI

A simple question sets the tone: what are you thankful for? We lean into the heart of Thanksgiving with real talk about gratitude, grief, and the quiet kind of joy that shows up even when life feels thin. From travel prayers to table rituals, we trace the holiday’s roots across cultures and the way harvest traditions still whisper to us now. Faith makes an appearance, not as a lecture, but as an honest thanks to the Creator and an open invitation to anyone who needs a little hope this week.

Then we turn the dial to the modern frontier: an AI country act called Breaking Rust climbing a digital chart. We break down the song’s polish and the uncanny gap where breath should be, asking whether music needs human imperfection to feel true. Is chart success a mirror or smoke? Are follower counts inflated or earned? You’ll hear a candid debate that balances curiosity with skepticism, and a clear call for your take. If you’ve listened to Walk My Walk, we want to know what you hear—and what you don’t.

Between the moments of reflection and the AI debate, we roll up our sleeves in the studio: rescuing old hardware with Linux Lite and Mint, running Umbrel for a home server, and stress-testing a Raspberry Pi for recording. It’s a small stand for openness, tinkering, and making the most of what you have, rooted in the same value for value ethos that keeps our show free and listener-powered. If you need a warm voice for the drive or a nudge to name your blessings, pull up a chair.

If this resonates, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and drop us a note with your thoughts on AI in music and what you’re thankful for. Your voice shapes where we go next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Thanksgiving Theme
• 0:52 Gratitude, Joy, And Support For Those Struggling
• 6:31 Thanksgiving’s Roots And Meaning
• 11:01 Personal Thanks And Faith Reflections
• 14:38 Global Thanksgiving Traditions
• 19:04 AI Country Artist Debate
• 26:32 Listener Challenge And Contact Info
• 29:15 Studio Noise And Human Imperfections
• 32:05 Bruce’s Linux And Hardware Upgrades
• 41:20 Mesh Networking Plans And Tech Hobbies
• 42:39 Closing Blessings And Support Options

Transcript

Bruce: 0:00

What are you thankful for?

Capella: 0:08

Welcome to the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast, the worst podcast in the unknown universe. Or at least that's what some people say. We prefer to think of ourselves as charmingly rough around the edges. We're passionate about podcasting and the value for value model, where creators and listeners connect directly. We believe in keeping our content free and open to everyone, because who needs another paywall, right?

Bruce: 0:30

And on that note, hello and welcome to the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. I'm Bruce.

Sunny: 0:37

And I am Sunny. We're glad to have you aboard.

Bruce: 0:42

Yes, we are. We're glad to have you here and aboard and with us and all that good stuff. Like I said, this is the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. Episode 129, Thanksgiving episode. That's right. This is Thanksgiving week. It's actually Tuesday before Thanksgiving while I'm setting down recording this. Hopefully we'll get it out right at Thanksgiving. Now that doesn't mean you have to listen to it or you're going to listen to it by Thanksgiving. But uh, whatever time you do listen to it, we hope you enjoy it. We hope you get something out of it, and we hope you have a good Thanksgiving.

Sunny: 1:27

Yeah, that's right. A great, not good, a great Thanksgiving. It's kind of important, you know, that you have a little bit of quality time with everybody.

Bruce: 1:40

Yes, sir. That is very true. It is important this time of year, you know, to have a little bit of time with your family, friends, uh, whoever you want to spend that Thanksgiving with. It's very important you get that done, you have a good time. That kind of brings some sense of uh center to you and hopefully get a little bit of joy to you. Now, speaking of that, there's a a lot of people this year and uh in the past that uh has not had the opportunity to spend much money on food and get together and all that, and they are feeling kind of bad about that. So we want you to say your prayers for these people and these kinds of depression that people face. And not only that, but there's a lot of people that have lost loved ones and this time of year really hits hard. So I want you to take an extra special moment to say a prayer for those people that somehow, even in their depression and their loss, whatever is affecting them spiritually and in their soul, that they will find a little bit of hope, a little bit of joy, a little bit of fun during this time, that this holiday won't be a turnaway, but it will be a way to draw them back into humanity and fun.

Sunny: 3:16

And fun? What's that mean?

Bruce: 3:19

Well, you gotta have a little bit of fun. I mean, if life is nothing but dread and down to the bone work and growling and all that stuff, your heart's just gonna give way. And I don't mean, yeah, maybe physically, but uh it will spiritually give away. You have to have a little bit of joy. When I say fun, I don't mean going out and partying type of fun. I mean joy. I mean getting a little bit of sense of joy. That's fun to me. That's you know, when you watch somebody laugh and you enjoy that, that's the kind of fun I'm talking about. So don't get me wrong when I say fun. I'm not going to the extreme of saying, hey, go out and get drunk, gamble, and throw away your life. That's not the kind of fun that I even talked about, okay?

Sunny: 4:15

Well, thanks for clarifying that.

Bruce: 4:18

Woo wee.

Sunny: 4:20

Big difference.

Bruce: 4:22

Yep, and I don't want to end up uh talking about that all next episode or this episode.

Sunny: 4:31

Well, I agree. And by the way, before we go any farther, I'm Sunny. If you've never heard us before, you've accidentally or on purpose tuned in to this episode. Hello, I'm Sunny.

Bruce: 4:48

Okay, Sunny. I'm Bruce, by the way. And uh we uh put this podcast together and the episode together. So if you hear Sunny, you hear Bruce. And if you hear Bruce, you hear Sunny most all the time. And we welcome you aboard if this is your first trial. And uh if you've come here before, what's wrong with you?

Sunny: 5:13

Hey, don't run our listeners away.

Bruce: 5:17

Oh, I'm not. I just I like to tease. And they know uh they know that if they've listened to us before. But thank you for coming back. Thank you for coming the first time. We hope you enjoy it, and once again, we hope you have a great Thanksgiving. There's more holidays to come. We'll talk about those when they get here. But we want you to enjoy this Thanksgiving this week. Many of you have taken some vacation time, which is pretty normal during this time. And I think that's great. And I hope you get to enjoy the whole time, get to enjoy your family. A lot of people are traveling, so I pray that you will have safe passage, not run across any problems, any trials. I hope it's blessed. May the Father's love and blessings go with you always. That's my hope and prayer. So today, if you're facing any depression or trials or loss during this time, I hope then pray that you can find it in yourself to pull yourself up, look around, and go, okay, it's not that bad. I gotta hang on here. And uh if you need any extra word, email me. You can email me, and I don't normally give this out, but I've been doing it a lot lately. It's Bruce at the UglyQacking Duck.com. That would be my personal email. My normal email to reach the podcast is the uglyquacking duck at gmail.com, and that's to reach the podcast. But if you'd like to talk personally to me, send me at the other one. All right, there you go. So I said, what are you thankful for at the beginning of the uh podcast episode? Just kind of a forethought, right?

Sunny: 7:21

Oh, is that what that was? I thought you were just blowing smoke.

Bruce: 7:25

No. Thanksgiving's here, and that time of year is when uh people celebrate and give thanks for the bountiful harvest that we've had through the year. Um, it was originally, uh, that's what it originally was for. There was different spiritual things attached to that, different religions, different um beliefs. Uh, it did not originate in this country. It came over with the pioneers, and uh, I believe the American Indians, I don't know what if you call them natives or what, but the first ones here actually had some kind of observance like that too, where they celebrated the spirits that gave them the bounty, and they celebrated that towards harvest season. I mean, it's just a common thing that we do, and uh we've tore tore most of the belief away in this country, and we've made it just a big feast, and we go to the house homes, people's and friends and family's homes, and we just gorge ourselves, watch some sports on TV, and that's our Thanksgiving day. And that is a skeleton of what it really means and what it began as. What are you thankful for is what I started this with, and I'd like to know. Stop and think, if you're listening to this, what are you thankful for? Me, myself, I'm thankful for my life, uh, having the health to be able to do this podcast. I'm really thankful for the podcast and the chance to share our lives on this kind of format. Uh, it kind of reminds me of the radio, and I love radio and what it used to stand for, not so much anymore, you know. But anyway, we won't get into that today. But I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful, thankful for my family, my friends, and uh the small house that I have, the studio that I have. I mean, I'm not really in need of anything. I mean, there could be better things, there could be a lot worse, believe me. Sunny, I'm thankful for you.

Sunny: 10:06

Oh, ain't you sweet, Bruce? Thank you. And can I say what I'm thankful for?

Bruce: 10:13

Well, yeah.

Sunny: 10:14

Okay, I'm thankful for being here. For being in this existence at this time, and being able to be part of this life. With whoever I'm with, whoever I meet, it's part of that, and I'm glad of it.

Bruce: 10:35

Well, that was wow. That was kind of that was well spoken. I'm not sure if I could add anything else to that, but that is beautiful. I mean, whatever we run into is part of this existence, and we are, or should be, thankful for it because even in the difficult times, it brings growth and blessing. We just have to look for it sometimes. Answer the question. You can answer it to your friends, family, to your pets, and to your beloved, or just to yourself internally, but uh answer yourself what you're thankful for. And I have to say one more thing. I'm thankful for the ability to give the creator the one that started the whole thing and planned it out even to the minute detail, and will not finish the plan until it settles right. I'm thankful for that. You can call him very many names, very many things, look to him in different ways, pray to him in different ways, but I am very thankful for him and what he's done and the ability to do this, and we turn Thanksgiving into a Christian um holiday many times. And yes, it is, but it's originally to give thanks for what we've been given through the years, not however you do that. And I do believe we ought to give the Creator that blessing, that thanks, and his son and his spirit that has enveloped us and gave us life. That we should be thankful for, and I am.

Sunny: 12:38

Woo we, we're going to church now.

Bruce: 12:44

Okay, I guess we are, but uh no. This is one of those holidays where you give thanks for the things around you and the things you've gotten. And I know a lot of people does not have a lot to be thankful for. And I'm not one of those going to pressure in to pressure you into finding something to be thankful for. No, I just want you to hang on and try to live and enjoy this holiday. And if you're having trouble with it, don't give up. Just hang in there, okay? Just believe my words. Believe my words. It will be different tomorrow. So just hang in there, okay? And try to enjoy what you got if you can. If you can't, just try to hang in there, okay? There you go. That's that's all we got to say about that, right?

Sunny: 13:46

That's right. And that was a lot.

Bruce: 13:50

Yeah, it was. It was more than I was anticipating talking about, but hey, anyhow, let's go back to Thanksgiving history. Want to?

Sunny: 13:59

Oh, sure. Yeah, are you gonna be a history major now?

Bruce: 14:03

Negatory. I just want to read out of Wikipedia of all places. You know, that they can add things to it and change it, and it's yeah. Anyhow, Wikipedia talks about Thanksgiving and it says that it's a national holiday, and it is, celebrated in various dates or on various dates in October and November in the United States, in Canada, in St. Lucia, Liberia, and uh unofficially in countries like Germany.

Sunny: 14:43

Oh boy, I didn't know it was so rampant.

Bruce: 14:46

Rampant. That's not the right word to use for that.

Sunny: 14:50

Oh, yeah, it is.

Bruce: 14:52

Okay. All right, Sunny. But anyway, it also is observed in some Australia territory of Norfolk Island. And I don't know if I said all that right, but anyway, it's celebrated very, very many various places, and they all celebrate in different ways. Like I said before, prayer and thanks and special Thanksgiving ceremonies are common among most religions after harvests and other times of the year. So once again, they're saying what I said earlier that it is a time of Thanksgiving. It's after harvest, it's like in the fall of the year when the crops are being pulled out and we get our bounti, and you say, Well, what if it's not a bountiful crop? Are you going to give thanks? Yes. They always gave thanks even if it wasn't bountiful. It was about the amount you given, not if it was enough, if that makes sense. And it's always enough. I mean, we survived, did we not, for generations and generations and generations and generations. So it must have been enough. Maybe just enough, but it was enough.

Sunny: 16:14

So what if harvest season comes way before Thanksgiving?

Bruce: 16:22

That's a good question. And it does in a lot of states and a lot of countries comes at different times, but we kinda in the United States have elected to do it close to the same times every year all throughout the states. And a lot of countries are the same way. They have celebrated that time of year at a certain time, pretty well every generation. Now it's not always the same times as us, but it's pretty close the same thing. And you know, it's just been a phenomenon. Ooh, that's a big word. During the harvest festival to do this kind of celebration. Now again, uh there's a lot of different ways of celebrating. There's Thanksgiving feasts and week-long celebration some places, and there's feasts and f fasting. I mean, there's different ways, but center point to all of it is we give thanks for the harvest for the year. And we uh celebrate that by a good big meal and trying to get together with everybody that we can to celebrate. So there you go. Now, if you want to give this feast and bountiful harvest uh rewarding honor to um uh some other god or some other entity or some other spirit that that's up to you. I mean, I'm not gonna tell you what's right or wrong. I'm not the judge. Somebody else will do that one day, and I'm not gonna be in that in that honor or dishonor. I'm going to be one that is being judged just like you are. So let's remember that, okay? Celebrate it, give everybody the thanks and the honor and love them, feast with them. That's what we're here for, okay?

Sunny: 18:41

All right. I think that's got it all said and done. You could probably go over it and beat that horse to death, but let's don't.

Bruce: 18:54

Okay, we won't.

Sunny: 19:00

Oh, Bruce, Bruce, I want to talk about something.

Bruce: 19:04

All right, Sunny. You want to talk about something? What do you want to bring up?

Sunny: 19:09

Well, I read a news article and I want to Wait, wait, a news article? Yeah, yeah, I really did.

Bruce: 19:18

Where was you at to get this news article?

Sunny: 19:21

On your new computer.

Bruce: 19:23

I don't have a new computer.

Sunny: 19:26

Well, you know, that old computer that you rebuilt and made new.

Bruce: 19:33

Oh, you was playing with that old computer.

Sunny: 19:37

Yeah, it was fun.

Bruce: 19:40

I'm glad you didn't tear it up.

Sunny: 19:42

Oh, I know what I'm doing.

Bruce: 19:45

Oh, famous last words. But anyhow, so you was on there browsing the internet, right?

Sunny: 19:52

Yeah. I was having fun.

Bruce: 19:56

Oh man, I thought you was above that.

Sunny: 19:59

What, having fun?

Bruce: 20:01

No, browsing the internet.

Sunny: 20:03

Oh, I just looking for some neat stuff to talk about like you do.

Bruce: 20:09

Okay. That makes a lot more sense. I just don't want you to get hooked and start streaming and listening and watching hours at a time.

Sunny: 20:22

Oh, you have nothing to worry about there. Yeah. After I got done with that news, I just went click and gone I went somewhere else to do something else.

Bruce: 20:35

Okay. Well, that's a good thing. So, Sunny, tell us what you're talking about.

Sunny: 20:42

All right. Yeah, okay. You're always talking about how the NAI is doing and what they're doing and how they're doing and blah blah blah blah.

Bruce: 20:56

All right. You made your point. What do you got to say?

Sunny: 21:01

Did you know you talked about the AI movie star that wasn't really yet a movie star, but the AI actress, well, now there's an AI country artist. That's right. Country artist, country singer, you know.

Bruce: 21:21

Yeah, we all know what a country artist is. Uh it's not a artist from the country. It's an artist that has country music at its soul, right?

Sunny: 21:35

Well, now you put it that way, yeah. I just thought it was the genre of country.

Bruce: 21:42

Well, that too. So how did you run across this information?

Sunny: 21:49

Well, y I didn't really read about it first. I actually ran across the song on Twitter, and I went, wow, that almost sounds good. It's got Bruce's singing beat all to pieces.

Bruce: 22:08

Now you didn't have to go there. I mean, really, you didn't have to go there.

Sunny: 22:14

Well, I'm telling the truth. Your singing lacks everything.

Bruce: 22:21

Oh no, you didn't.

Sunny: 22:24

Oh, I did.

Bruce: 22:27

All right, so you've just really threw me under the bridge and told everybody how bad I sing. Even in the shower, I scare the cats.

Sunny: 22:37

Oh, you scare more than that. But anyhow, I was listening to this Twitter account, and it had this AI country singer, which I didn't know was AI at first. And after I listened to it, I could tell.

Bruce: 22:56

Oh, well, hang on. Let's stop. I'm gonna go listen to it so I know what you're talking about. And we'll be back, folks. So just snap your finger and we'll be back that quick because you won't even know we went. All right, you're talking about breaking rust, correct?

Sunny: 23:17

That's right. Breaking rust, AI generated country music artist.

Bruce: 23:24

Okay, yep, I just found it and very interesting. I listened to it and not bad, I have to agree.

Sunny: 23:33

See? I was telling you, you thought I was telling a fib, but nope, not bad.

Bruce: 23:40

Yep, not bad, but not that great either. I mean, it doesn't have anything that stands out. It sounds like country, and it is, you know, that genre. Uh it has a good rhythm, uh beat, and some good music, rhymes, words, you know. However, um, that's about it.

Sunny: 24:06

Oh, you're gonna put it down now.

Bruce: 24:09

No, I'm not gonna put it down, but I am gonna say that everybody needs to go listen to it. It's Breaking Rust, is the country music artist, and that was created this year. And the songwriter that did it was Aubrey Rivaldo Taylor Rivaldo. Forgive me for tearing that name up. I'm not very good at different names. The song he's talking about is Walk My Walk, correct, Sunny?

Sunny: 24:39

Yeah, that's the one.

Bruce: 24:41

All right. He's got other ones like Living on Borrowed Time and uh some different ones, but walk by walk top the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales. Yeah. Number one on the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales. What is this world coming to when we got AI winning that kind of stuff? But anyhow, um on Instagram, it was Instagram, not TikTok.

Sunny: 25:14

Oh, well maybe it was. I don't know. I didn't pay attention to that.

Bruce: 25:20

Now you sound a lot more like me than I would care to ever imagine. Oh poo. All right, anyway, supposedly they've got uh that person, that AI, I don't know how you say it, has thirty-five thousand followers. I wonder how many of them are AI and made up. Oh, no.

Sunny: 25:46

I never thought about that.

Bruce: 25:48

Yeah. If they can make a artist up using AI, why can't they make the followers up too? And yeah. So this may all be a bunch of made up baloney to get people like us stirred up. What do you think about that, Sunny?

Sunny: 26:07

I don't like that. That's manipulation.

Bruce: 26:11

Uh-huh. Yep. Yeah, it is. Okay, so go out and listen to the song. Just look it up, walk by walk. No, walk my walk, and it's by breaking rust. And you can listen to it and see what you think about it. Comment to us. Yeah, tell us what you think of this AI going out to be actresses and going to be songwriters and singers. We want your opinion. There you go. Challenge of this episode is to get back with Bruce at the uglyquacking duck.com. No, let's just leave the personal one off. Get back to us at the uglyquacking duck at gmail.com. That's the ugly quacking duck at gmail.com. Does that go good, Sunny? Yeah, I like it. Let's do that, Bruce. All right, you guys get back with us if we get any any response, which we nobody usually responds. They just download us and listen to us and probably go, them bunch of dummies. But if you will respond, we'll add up the responses and see what the opinions are of AI. So tell us what you think of the AI and tell us what you think specifically of Walk My Walk song. If you want to give an opinion where you think all this is going, it would be very interesting. We'll even read your notes off unless you specifically said, don't, Bruce, don't.

Sunny: 27:52

Oh my gosh, really? I want to do it. Sunny don't.

Bruce: 28:00

Okay. Uh I don't even know what to think. Can I add anything to that?

Sunny: 28:08

Of course you can, but don't.

Bruce: 28:11

All right. Fair enough. Anyway, uh, we will read it off to you. Had to clear my throat there. We'll read it off after on the next episode if you give us anything to read. Come on, guys. We're begging you to be part of this podcast. I mean, you're listening to it. Why not participate? That's, you know, that's all we ask. Well, maybe not all. Yeah, we're needy. Susan at work always says, You're being needy this day. And I say, Yeah, probably so. But anyhow, yeah, let's do that. So here's what I think about the song. It sounds good, like I said, has a good beat, good rhythm going to it, kind of got the blues kind of sound to the country. Uh instrumentals are pretty decent. What I noticed is there's no pause for breathing, and that really bothers me. I like the human effect. I like to listen to people on a podcast and hear their voice when they take a breath. Maybe when they slop some saliva around, because I know those things, because I do it. And when I hear a pause in this song this walk my walk song, it's just a pause. They just pause in between the words so they can take up another phrase or to give you a semblance of humanity. But there's no breath. There's no pause taking a breath. There's no sigh. There's no in-between. It's just non-stop song audio with a pause of the audio. But no, if you listen to it and listen for that, you'll hear what I'm saying. And that really bugged me. I mean, once I noticed that, it was like I couldn't get it out of my head. I couldn't unnotice it. As a Reese at work always says, you can't unnotice it once you notice it. And that's so true.

Sunny: 30:37

Oh. Oh. No. You just ring that song for me.

Bruce: 30:45

Well, I didn't intend to reign it, but you know what? I don't know what it is. There's something going on in the studio today. I don't know if you've noticed all those cars going by. Hopefully I can get most of that out. But man, we are really hearing a weird echo in here today. And I I didn't change anything. I well, I've got the blinds up, but that's normal. But there is a weird weirdness about the echoes. The cars go by and they just echo in this room. And I've not noticed it like that before. And I haven't added more furniture or taken any away. I've worked on my computers, but that hasn't changed anything. But every time a car goes by, I just hear this echo. And I've not noticed it before, and I'm hearing it in the headphones a lot. And there went one again. Now I'm not sure it's picking it up, and I'm hoping if it is, I can get it out in post because it's very loud in my headphones.

Sunny: 31:58

Maybe it's your head echoing, you know, that space in between your ears, and when them cars go by, it's reverberating in your head. Because there's nothing up there but concrete.

Bruce: 32:18

No, I don't think so.

Sunny: 32:20

Oh yeah. Whatever makes you sleep at night, Bruce.

Bruce: 32:26

Okay, Sunny. Okay. Well, I like that story you brought to our attention, and I hope we get some responses.

Sunny: 32:34

Well, thank you, Bruce. I enjoyed that. I know why you do it now. I may have to do that more often.

Bruce: 32:41

Well, I think you might. I appreciate it. Hey, Sunny.

Sunny: 32:48

Yeah, Bruce.

Bruce: 32:49

I want you to tell me something, okay?

Sunny: 32:52

All right. I'll try if I can.

Bruce: 32:55

All right. Can you tell me why teddy bears are never hungry?

Sunny: 33:00

What?

Bruce: 33:01

Yeah. Tell me why teddy bears never are never hungry.

Sunny: 33:05

Because they're always uh I don't know. They're eating honey.

Bruce: 33:10

Uh uh, no. It's because they're always stuffed.

Sunny: 33:19

Oh no. Wow. I don't know what you yeah, no.

Bruce: 33:30

You really thought I was being serious, wouldn't you?

Sunny: 33:33

Well, no, I knew it. I was just going along with you.

Bruce: 33:37

Uh-huh. Uh-huh, sure. Whatever makes you sleep at night.

Sunny: 33:42

Oh, burn.

Bruce: 33:46

Yeah.

Sunny: 33:47

All right. I I admit it, you got me.

Bruce: 33:51

Well, it's about time because you've done that two or three times to me.

Sunny: 33:55

Hey, Bruce, hey, why don't you give the listeners a quick rundown of what you've been doing with all your computers?

Bruce: 34:05

Oh, what a lead-in. Yeah, I'd love to. Um, I'll try not to bore them to death.

Sunny: 34:10

Well, don't worry, you've already done that, but just go ahead, tell us. It's kind of interesting.

Bruce: 34:16

Okay. I um actually have uh three computers that have got out of date. One of them's a laptop, and it's uh had Windows 8 on it, and it's just a a streaming laptop, is what they called it, I believe. It is has a small solid state uh hard drive on it, so you can't really put very much stuff on it, so I can't upgrade it to the newest Windows. And then I have a all-in-one Acer desktop that used to run really good, and then I let it set for a long time and the battery died on it. It's got Windows 8 on it, so you can't run anything newer on either one of those. Now that one's got a 500 gig hard drive, which is big enough to put you know another operating system on, but it's not going to run anything else. So I had a problem. Do I junk them? And I really can't afford to replace them, or do I try to use them for something else? And then I also had a Raspberry Pi 3 that I got when was it? Like 2015, 16. So it set for a long time, and I just got it back out. What I did was I took the um HP laptop that wouldn't run hardly anything other than a streaming stripped-down OS. I put um Linux Lite on it, and so far it's working really good. Now, the trouble with that laptop, it would not find, or Linux or any other operating system I put on there would not find the internal wireless card. Just wouldn't do it, no matter what I did. So I ordered one that was built for Linux machines, plugged it into the USB, found it immediately, and wham bam, I'm on the internet with that Linux Lite operating system. Works real good, it's really fast. Now, before that, I had put Linux Mint on it. That worked, but not real well. It was a uh more of a resource hog than I needed on that thing, and it would bog it down. But I put that Linux light on there and it wow, I'm not kidding you, it runs really, really good. Now I don't know how much I'm gonna be able to do with that machine because it don't have many resources, not a very big hard drive. Now I can always plug one into it and you know add memory, but I don't know. I may just use it for browsing and you know, maybe playing some music, who knows? And then on the Acer machine, I uh actually took it. I put a bunch of different operating systems on there. I did Linux, didn't like it, did Linux Mint, and I really like that, and I tried Start OS, which is another Linux-based operating system, and I wanted that one to work, but for some reason I I reloaded it three different times and it would not run right. It would one day it would run, and then the next time I'd come in and try to start something, it wouldn't even get and find on the so the store front, it would not find any of the uh anything. And it just act like it wasn't getting on the internet, but it was. Because it start OS was a server program, and uh I tried and just wouldn't work, no matter what I did. And the reason I was wanting to do that is because I was wanting to run my Albi Hub on it, which is what I use for Bitcoin. I tried Linux Mint, it worked good, but I could not get that program to run the hub, which it was supposed to. So it wasn't a I don't think it was a program. I think it was just I needed more experience and learning with Linux, and I didn't have it at the time. Shoot, the last time I'd used Linux was back when I was living in Wayne City, which was probably about 20 years ago or more, probably more. And Linux had first come out um uh Red Hat, I think, and it came in like five discs, and you put it on your computer and you had to install everything. And I worked through and got, you know, the moldem installed and this installed and that installed. I hated it. It was too much time, a lot of work. I didn't mind that as much as the time it took me to try to learn all the commands, and then when I had a problem, yeah, I just I gave up on it because I didn't have time to go back and learn it. I was working, you know. Anyone have that problem? Hobbies have to take them, you know, a second. Anyway, with that said, I um then switched over to Umbral, and it's another server program, and I put it on there, and guess what? It worked. Yeah. So I have a server program running by Albi Hub, and then on the Raspberry Pi 3, I put a Raspberry OS on there, and it works great. Tried recording a little bit of this podcast episode on it, and it just wasn't quite fast enough, so it had a lot of pops and cracks. So I may do that eventually. Uh do another Raspberry Pi 5 and put a podcast studio station on that thing so I can go portable with it also. But there you go, Sunny. That's all my uh ranting on my computers.

Sunny: 40:32

Woo woo! You got a lot done.

Bruce: 40:36

Well, I don't know about that, but I I made some changes here in the studio, and I've got a lot of playing and a lot more learning to do on Linux, but those systems I'm talking about are more like Windows than the original Linux was, and uh it made it a lot easier to do all that.

Sunny: 40:57

Well, I'm glad it kept you out of my hair for about a week or two.

Bruce: 41:04

Yeah, probably did. Probably did.

Sunny: 41:07

Well, I just wanted you to share it because I knew you were excited and you had fun with it.

Bruce: 41:14

That's true, that's very true. And as time goes on, I will probably share a little bit more about it. And uh I may do another hobby. I've been looking into mesh tastic, which I'm not even gonna go into that because we're gonna close down here in a minute. That's another uh part of my uh radio hobby I may get into. You can look it up, mesh tastic. See what you think about it. The only drawback to it, it looks like it might be fun, but it doesn't look like it will travel because it's 915 megahertz here in the States. So it doesn't look like it's gonna travel very far. So, you know, you may have to have a lot of nodes. It kind of reminds me of the old the old packet radio stations, and we used them. We humped from one node to another node to another node. That was cool, and that's kind of what this does.

Sunny: 42:15

Well, that sounds like fun too. I hope you get that going.

Bruce: 42:21

Well, we we may. Well one step at a time. I'm gonna get a little bit more Linux stuff done, and then maybe do that podcast station thing, and then we may look at doing that later on this winter. Who knows? We'll talk more about it though. Let's um let's bid everybody a good farewell and a happy Thanksgiving. What do you think, Sunny?

Sunny: 42:42

Oh, that'd be good. I hope I didn't get too bored by your antics.

Bruce: 42:48

My antics? Oh, listen to you. What about your antics?

Sunny: 42:53

I'm a nice guy.

Bruce: 42:55

You're not even a guy.

Sunny: 42:57

Well, for all general purposes, yeah, I am.

Bruce: 43:02

All right, whatever. So, hey folks, thanks for tuning in, listening to our episode. I hope it is not your last. I hope you come back. And if you've been here before, sh man, thanks for keeping up with us and staying with us, being part of us. And if this is your first time, come back. Thank you for being here.

Sunny: 43:28

Oh yeah, and keep coming back. Bruce has made the effort to podcast and keep podcasting. That's Buzz Sprout's words, so you can keep coming back and listening.

Bruce: 43:42

Oh, yeah, that is Buzz Sprouts mantra. Start podcasting and keep podcasting. That's who we send our podcasts to to host them, to publish them, and we really do appreciate them. So for Thanksgiving, we're saying happy Thanksgiving to them and everybody else. We really appreciate everybody. Get in touch with us, all right? Be part of a show. Don't just listen, but be part of the show.

Sunny: 44:13

Yeah, let's do it to it, Bruce.

Bruce: 44:17

We gotta have Apella, Capella, I think the AI, do one more thing for us before we say bye. So here we go.

Capella: 44:25

There are many ways you can show your support for the Uggy Quacking Duck Podcast. First, simply keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and maybe send good vibes too. Second, spread the word. Tell your friends about us, even the ones with questionable taste in podcasts. Third, share your talents. If you have skills in technology, art, or anything else that could help us, we'd love to hear from you. And finally, consider supporting us financially. Equipment, hosting, and website costs add up, and any contribution is greatly appreciated. We promise not to spend it all on rubber duckies, unless you want us to. Thank you for your support.

Bruce: 45:02

Whether you have heard this before Thanksgiving, after Thanksgiving, during Thanksgiving, may you have a great and blessed week. Thank you for being part of the show.

Sunny: 45:15

Yep, it's been a fun, fun episode. I've enjoyed doing the recording and being part of this show. Bruce, have a good Thanksgiving, everybody.

Bruce: 45:28

Yes, have a good Thanksgiving, everybody. And we will talk to you next time around. So until next time, may the Father's blessings and love be with you.

Sunny: 45:39

Yes. Thank you.